Pre-race info

For 100 mile runners, you’ll have a few opportunities to cool off along your run at a stream, river, pond, and a spring fed cattle trough. The first one is a small stream at mile 19 on the course. Another small stream crossing will be at about mile 21. At about mile 28 you’ll cross North Creek along the Kolob Terrace road which usually is running crystal clear and even has a nice place to jump off of a 10 ft rock into a little swimming hole if you’re willing to stray 100 yds from the trail. Around mile 30 is a pond on the right hand side of the road, just before a cattle guard. At mile 35.5 you’ll cross the Virgin river (Sheep’s Bridge) and runners can take 100 yd detour to take a dip in the river before getting on the JEM trail. The last opportunity to cool off is at the green cattle trough found at mile 45. This one probably sounds the grossest, but remember- it’s just before the gnarliest ascent of the course and just after crossing 15 miles of exposed desert in the afternoon sun. It is spring fed and always has flowing water, so it’s not as gross as other cattle troughs.

We’ll have these misters set up at aid stations 3-12 as well as a makeshift public shower made of PVC set up at the finish line.

The menu for the overnight aid stations will be serving the following menu to the 100 milers: Aid #5- My mom’s homeade soup (she even boiled the bones to make the stock- doesn’t get any more homeade than that!), Aid #6- Bean/rice/cheese burritos, Aid #7- Grilled cheese, Aid #8- Spaghetti, Aid #9- Homeade mac and cheese, Aid #10- More of mom’s soup, Aid #11- Pancake/egg breakfast, Aid #12- You’re less than 5 miles from the finish line, suck it up!

If you are driving and have camping chairs, would you mind bringing some extras for runners that are flying in? There will plenty of shade for runners to sit on the grass if you don’t have a camping chair. We’ll have seating for about 50 people but not near enough to accomodate everyone.

Beverages at the finish line will be made possible by the folks at Zion Canyon Brewing Co. and Pepsi.

Saw my first rattler of the year on Gould’s Rim trail yesterday (4/18). I was a little surprised because it had been so cold lately and I didn’t expect them to be out and active already. It is warming back up very quickly. Saturday I was running in the snow with icicles in my hair and frozen hands and feet and then 3 days later it was 80 degrees on my run and I ran out of water.

Below is an email that was sent out to all of the runners a few days ago, re-posted here just to make sure everyone has all the info.

Hola!
Less than 4 weeks out from the inaugural Zion 100- Are you as excited and nervous as I am??? Just wanted to send out an email making sure that a few things got communicated to everyone with plenty of time in advance to prepare.

First off, will you please go to ultrasignup.com and add an emergency contact? We forgot to include this in the registration process this year and would like to have it on file in case of an emergency situation.

All runners will be weighed on race morning and a baseline weight will be recorded and distributed to the 3 medical checkpoints along the 100 mile course -Aid stations #4 (Sheeps Bridge-mile 35), #8 (Smithsonian Butte Turnoff-mile 69.75) and #10 (Gould’s Rim-mile 82.75). Fifty milers will only have one medical checkpoint at the Gould’s Rim aid station (mile 40.75). Any runner that has lost more than 3% of their body weight from their baseline weight will be monitored while they rehydrate. Medical volunteers will also be keeping an eye out for hyponatremia. Make sure that you are closely monitoring your sodium intake with a product that your body is familiar with.

Runners are responsible to check in at each aid station with the volunteer wearing the orange vest and carrying a clipboard. Make sure that you are counted. Failure to check in will result in disqualification.

If you withdraw from the race, let someone know. If we send out search and rescue, you are responsible to pay the bill.

Please encourage your pacer to use the shuttle service from the finish line to the appropriate aid station. Have them be at the finish line an hour before they want to be at their aid station. This keeps vehicles down at the aid stations and saves you a shuttle trip out to your vehicle after the race.

The course map and directions have recently been updated on the website with more accurate mileage. The only aid station that was affected was #10, moved up a mile to the Diamond Ranch Academy school as they will be manning the aid station.

Directions to aid stations for crew have also been posted. There are two additional access points for 100 mile crews that you’ll want to check out on the website as well.

It will likely be very hot in May. Long sleeves and a hat would be wise. The John Wayne Cancer Foundation will be providing sunscreen packets in the pre-race bags and will also be available at aid stations. Both distances will be crossing long sections of exposed desert during the hottest time of day. If possible, you may want to plan some mid-day runs between now and race day to get your body used to running in the heat. Of course you never know, two days ago we had a blizzard up on the mesas that left four inches of snow!

There are a few sections where you will be going through brush and loose dirt and rocks, so gaiters would be a good idea if you like to wear them.

Since each buckle is uniquely made and some will be more popular than others, we are going to let the runners of the 100 miler choose their buckles in the order that they finish.

Each runner will receive a meal ticket in their pre-race bag good for one person at the dutch oven cookout starting at 6pm on Saturday. If you will not be joining us for the meal, please give your ticket back to us so that we can invite a volunteer to join us in your place. If you have friends and family that would like to join us for the meal, vouchers can be purchased at pre-race check in for $11 each (cash or check only.) The Grumpy Goat pizza ovens will be fired up most of the time from Thurs. evening through Saturday afternoon. Runners will receive a voucher for one pizza to be used either before or after the race, but any friends/family/crew can purchase pizzas at any time.

Absolutely no littering!

Use of headphones and trekking poles are OK.
Feel free to email with any additional questions that you may have! Have fun training out there!